Emergency And Acute Physiotherapy

Acute musculoskeletal conditions are commonly encountered in clinical practice. General Physicians (GP) or Accident and Emergency (A&E) Doctors are the first line of contact with these kinds of patients. The onsets of acute musculoskeletal injuries are either traumatic or non-traumatic.

Traumatic onset includes road traffic accidents, direct or indirect injuries, falls, sporting clashes and industrial accidents which warrant an immediate attention to the Accident and Emergency Departments. Non-traumatic onset are usually mechanical in nature such as lifting heavy weights, getting up from bed from awkward positions, sudden onset of pain with faulty postures, acute sprains and strains with sporting activities and acute exacerbation of chronic conditions.

Common Emergency And Acute Physiotherapy Conditions

Common acute musculoskeletal conditions include acute back pain with prolapsed disc or facet joint locks, acute muscle strains and acute ligament sprains in the knee’s and ankle’s. Such patients are self-referred to GP’s or A&E for first line of medical management. After their consultation, patients will be referred to Specialist Physiotherapist for emergency physiotherapy services, as an adjunct to medical management for pain relief and to improve functions in the acute stage.

Role Of The Emergency And Acute Physiotherapy

Specialist Physiotherapist identifies the cause, nature and behaviour of pain, pathology of pain and classifies the acute musculoskeletal condition under either inflammatory or mechanical or inflammatory imposed by mechanical nature. With appropriate examination and sound clinical reasoning, physiotherapist administers different management techniques to relieve pain and maximize function along with the medical management.

This Emergency Physiotherapy Services arrests the pain at early stage and inhibits progressing to sub-acute and chronic stage which improves patient’s quality of life immediately and operationally it minimises the costs, waiting time and length of stay in the acute hospitals.

Our Specialist Physiotherapist, Mr. J Jacob Praveen has strong passion and interest towards acute musculoskeletal conditions. He completed his Master of Physiotherapy endorsed in Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapy (OMT) and Post Graduate Diploma in Physiotherapy endorsed in Manipulative Physiotherapy at University of Otago, New Zealand in the year 2014 and 2008 respectively after graduating his Bachelor’s from Dr. MGR University, India in 2005. Since then, he has been practicing in different clinical setting under neuro-musculoskeletal discipline.

He worked at Changi General Hospital for 6 years in out-patient musculoskeletal subsidised clinic encountering different kinds of musculoskeletal conditions at different stages of chronicity (acute/sub-acute/chronic). In his last couple of years, he worked with different disciplines of Accident and Emergency Team at Changi General Hospital to address to all kinds of acute musculoskeletal patients.

He has treated many acute musculoskeletal patients at outpatient A&E clinic, at the bed side in short stay units and observation units with various injuries. He finds completeness of heart and much satisfaction when patients coming to him in painful tears, in emergency trolley’s, in wheel chairs and with assistance and making them smile, sit, stand and walk independently after the treatment sessions. Thus, providing effective clinical care to the patients with acute musculoskeletal conditions.